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Disabled Students' Commitment

Disabled students at the University of Birmingham (UoB) have spent several years extensively campaigning for meaningful improvements to accessibility, transparency, and accountability.

Since 2021, disabled students have organised several protests, written directly to the Vice-Chancellor, and worked with the Guild of Students to publish a Disabled Students’ Commission Report[1].

This work responds to a clear pattern of systemic disadvantage: disabled students are consistently among the most dissatisfied groups in the National Student Survey (NSS) results and are disproportionately represented in Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) complaints[2].

A central ask of these campaigning efforts has been for UoB to sign up to the Disabled Students’ Commitment (DSC)[3], a national framework designed to support institutions in improving disabled students’ experiences and institutional accountability. Joining the DSC would align UoB with other Russell Group universities, including Bristol and Exeter, as well as local universities such as Birmingham City University, University College Birmingham, and Aston University. Signing the Commitment would build on the University’s existing Advance HE EDI work[4], including Athena Swan and the Race Equality Charter, ensuring disability is embedded within the same structured, institution-wide approach to equality. While the University is recognised as a Disability Confident employer[5], it currently has no equivalent strategic framework dedicated to improving the disabled student experience.

This proposal reflects sustained student advocacy and clear evidence of need. Adopting the Disabled Students’ Commitment would provide a practical framework to deliver the improvements disabled students have consistently called for and deserve.

1. The Guild of Students will mandate and lobby the University of Birmingham to sign up to the Disabled Students’ Commitment to demonstrate a clear institutional commitment to improving the experience, inclusion, and outcomes of disabled students.
2. The Guild of Students will commit to improving the accessibility of its physical spaces, digital platforms, communications, and activities.
   1. The Guild of Students will call on its Activities Committee to ensure its current student group grant strategy enables free-membership associations (such as the Student Association for Neurodiversity, Disability and Mental Health) to carry out vital student activity and campaigning without financial barriers.
   2. The Guild of Students will develop and publish its accessibility guidance for its events. Such as, the provision of ‘quiet or low-sensory hours’ during commercial fairs.
   3. The Guild of Students will publish its process for applying for RADAR keys to access its disabled toilets.
   4. The Guild of Students will establish a designated sensory quiet room for its disabled and neurodivergent students (e.g. the current quiet room).
   5. The Guild of Students will sign up to the Sunflower Lanyard scheme.
3. The Guild of Students will enable routes for feedback by disabled students and ensure disabled students remain an important constituency and regularly engage in two-way dialogue to ensure their needs are being effectively represented.
   1. The Guild of Students will mandate and lobby the University of Birmingham to sign up to DSUK’s Access Insights and encourage disabled students to respond to their annual Disabled Student Survey.
   2. The Guild of Students will re-establish regular student council meetings. If this is not feasible, it will establish a forum for disabled students and other liberation groups, chaired by a relevant officer. Membership will be open to all students, with specific societies invited to contribute to discussion.
   3. The Guild of Students will commit to an annual events schedule and campaign for Disability History Month primarily facilitated by Student Voice in partnership with the Disabled Students’ Officer and supported across the organisation. Furthermore, the Guild of Students will establish a structured celebration and campaign framework to support all Liberation Officers in delivering key commemorative months, including Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and LGBTQ+ History Month.